The Bangladesh government has decided to honour 129 foreign dignitaries, including 47 Indians, for their contributions to the country’s liberation war in 1971 but the decision has sparked a controversy in Tripura as the name of chief minister Manik Sarkar also figured in the list, which the Opposition Congress and many civil society organisations consider as a “gross distortion of history”.
The honour will be conferred on March 27 in a special programme at Dhaka as a part of the country’s 40th Independ-ence Day celebration.
Few hundred activists of the Nagarik Manch even demonstrated in front of the Bangladesh visa office at Agartala, demanding an immediate removal of Mr Sarkar’s name. However, their attempt to submit a memorandum to the first secretary of the visa office was prevented by the police as they did not obtained prior permission.
“Neither his party CPI(M) nor Mr Sarkar had any positive role in the liberation war of Bangladesh. Rather they remained indifferent to the struggle as their ideological mentor, China, was opposed to it,” Leader of the Opposition Ratan Lal Nath told a press conference here.
Meanwhile, the government of Tripura, in a press release, said “who would be honoured in recognition of their contribution to the liberation war of Bangladesh is an internal matter of the government of Bangladesh”.
However, the CPI(M), in a statement, supported the decision and said the Tripura unit of the Students’ Federation of India played a glorious role during the liberation war of Bangladesh of which Mr Sarkar was the secretary. They even questioned if the Congress had any role at that time.
Apart from Mr Sarkar, the names of two other CPI(M) leaders, former chief minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu and the former chief minister of Tripura Dasarath Deb, also figured in the list. Inclusion of another name that raised many eye brows is the former Congress minister and former Maharani of Tripura Bibhu Kumari Devi.
The other prominent Indians figured in the list include first chief minister of Tripura Sachindra Lal Singha, Siddhartha Sankar Roy, Rajeswar Rao, P.A. Sangma, Justice Sadat Abdul Masud, Pandit Ravi Sankar, Ostad Ali Akbar Khan, Mother Teresa, Wahida Rehaman, Sunil Datta, Nargis Datta, Jagjiban Ram, Bhupesh Gupta, Kaifi Azmi, Bhupen Hazarika, Field Marshal SAM Manakshaw, Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora, Lt. Gen. Jacob, Lance Nayak Albert Ekka, Lata Mangeshkar, D.P. Dhar, General Uban, P.N. Haksar, Dr Karan Singh, Sardar Swaran Singh and Sarat Chandra Sinha.